A Biochemical Discovery of the Ancient Babylonians

Abstract

AT a lecture given recently in Cambridge by Prof. Okey my attention was directed to a passage written by Galileo in 1623 in which this pioneer of scientific method attacks the doctrines of the classical philosophers with his usual irony and vehemence. I refer to a section of his “Il Saggiatore,” in which Galileo replies to his contemporary Sarsi, who had quoted Suida to the effect that the Babylonians used to cook eggs in an emergency and when no fire was available, by rapidly whirling them in slings. (“Babylonii iniecta in fundas ova in orbem circumagentes, rudis et venatorii victus non ignari, sed iis rationibus quas solitudo postulat exercitati ‘etiam crudum ovum impetu illo coxerunt.’” Suida, Lessicografo. Bizant., x.)